title: Q fever in the Netherlands: a concise overview and implications of the largest ongoing outbreak.
abstract: Two outbreaks of Q fever were reported in the Netherlands in 2007 and 2008. The ongoing 2008 outbreak in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands is the largest community outbreak ever described, with 808 cases reported until August 2008. The changing epidemiology of Q fever is most likely related to intensive goat farming, and has important implications for the clinical care of patients in endemic areas. Treatment of community-acquired pneumonia has to take possible Q fever into account, and the high incidence of Q fever endocarditis and other manifestations of chronic Q fever require a specific diagnostic and therapeutic approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Internal Medicine and Nijmegen University Centre for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. c.delsing@aig.umcn.nl
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Delsing
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Kullberg
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D011778:Q Fever / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies